TRURO – Carol Lynch arrived at the Salvation Army Thrift Store on Sunday only to make a disgusting discovery.

“I came in through the front door and out through the back to get the donations and these were sitting right by the door,” Lynch said of five buckets that she believes contain “human waste.”

“There were three buckets in a bag, but these two weren’t. The smells were so bad – I think it’s human waste. There’s definitely some animal waste in there, and there’s fleas in one bucket.”

On Sunday, Lynch, an employee at the thrift store, arrived at the Forrester Street location at about 10:30 a.m. to bring clothing donations inside and clean up the store. She arrived seven hours later and found the containers.

Three containers appear to be large ice cream containers with pink tops, all three of which were in a clear garbage bag, tied at the top. There were two other plastic containers – a similar but smaller container with a yellow top, containing similar contents to the larger three, as well as a rectangular container with blue top and handle.

“I opened that one and shouldn’t have – there’s fleas everywhere,” Lynch said about the blue-handled container.

“I’m not opening the rest.”

After making the discovery, Lynch said she contacted Environment Canada, who told her to call the RCMP.

“I called them, and they referred me to the Truro Police Service, but said if they didn’t do anything that they would.”

She was also told to call about biohazards.

“People have left bags of garbage here before, but nothing like this. In my almost 10 years here, I couldn’t imagine someone leaving something like this. How can people be so low?”

Lynch said people often leave bags of garbage and sometimes bags of dog poop. Some of the bags of garbage have contained used diapers.

“I’m just disgusted. I just came back from Thanksgiving dinner too with my husband,” she said.

While this is a first for the thrift store, Lynch said people often come during afterhours and go through donations that are left outside.

“Anybody leaving stuff here should know that things are getting stolen and ripped apart by other people,” she said.

“We have a surveillance camera, but that doesn’t stop them.”

Truro Police Service Insp. Rob Hearn confirmed the service received a call Tuesday morning about the drop off and an officer has been assigned to investigate.

Until then, Lynch provided the Truro Daily News with an image from the store’s surveillance camera in hopes someone will recognize the woman who left the donation.

“I want this person charged. I didn’t think anything could shock me, but this has,” she said.

Anyone with information on the incident can contact the Truro Police Service at 895-5351, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.